When Is The Right Time?

HI All,

I have been running a Fluvel Flex 58 litre tank for a year and upgraded to a Juwel Rio 180 (plastic plants/dragon stone) which has been running for 4 weeks this Friday. I have had 3 platys in there for 3 weeks and after vigorous testing and water changes the tank seems to have settled nicely and is looking good. I want to transfer my 4 black neon, 5 glowlight, 5 neon tetra and 2 corys over to the new tank and am wondering when the best time to do this is. I was thinking of a species per week for the next 4 weeks if this would be a sensible plan or I should wait much longer before attempting to do so? The chap from my LFS who delivered the tank told me not bother putting some filter media or dragon stone from Flex in the new tank but I could still do this and wait if it's though appropriate to do at this stage.

As nice as it would be to decommission the Flex I don’t want to rush it if it’s going to harm my existing fish.


TIA

 

Hi, if the water parameters in the 180 are good & stable you can start moving your fish over, I think your idea of one species each week should do it as the timescale should allow the BB in the filter to keep pace with the bio-load just keep an eye on your parameters to make sure you're not getting any ammonia spikes but I doubt you will.

 

I am going to disagree with the chap from the LFS. Moving the filter and/or media and the deco from your existing cycled tank over to the new tank would have basically instantly cycled the new tank. The cycle lives mostly on the filter media but some also lives on every surface ih the tank. By moving those items over you are basically moving the cycle from one tank to another.

If you go ahead now and move those items over to the new tank you can also move all the fish at the same time since the media already has enough bacteria to handle the bio-load those fish are producing.

My advice would have been move EVERYTHING including the fish and water (very little bacteria lives in the water but it is what your fish and bacteria is used to) over to the bigger tank all at the same time. You would just be moving the cycle from one tank to another.

 

100% agree with the above.

Its sad that people at the LFS don't even know the absolute basics of fish keeping. That chap literally told you to do the exact opposite of what you should do!!

Move all the filter media and all the fish to the new tank and you should instantly cycled. Its no different than doing a 100% water change on the tank they are currently in. You can even move some of their old water with them too so it isn't 100% new water. (not that you need to)

 

Thanks for all for the replies most grateful. One further question if I may, if I move everything over now lock stock an barrel would it adversely effect the platys in my new tank who will not be used to the conditions in the old tank, this was my thinking behind a drip feed introduction.

 

Thanks for all for the replies most grateful. One further question if I may, if I move everything over now lock stock an barrel would it adversely effect the platys in my new tank who will not be used to the conditions in the old tank, this was my thinking behind a drip feed introduction.

I can't see it being a problem for the platys. Just remove enough water from the new tank to be replaced with the water from the old one. A lot of folks don't recommend using the old water but in my humble opinion it is less of a shock to the fish and bacteria (the bacteria is a living thing so needs to be considered) than entirely new water. Just add the old tank water slowly and your platys should be just fine.

 

Thanks. Here is a pic of my new tank if anyone is interested, will probably add a few more plants soon, the Sydeco range is really good for someone like me who is not ready to take on the live plant aspect of fishkeeping quite yet.